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One thing which really annoys me is when people install a javascript routine which, upon a right mouse button click event, pops up an alert box stating that "Right click is disabled" or "HTML source is protected".

Why do people bother? I like to examine the HTML source of many sites I visit to further my knowledge, indeed it is this method of learning which I believe is responsible for the rate at which the WWW did, and continues to, grow.

HTML is a client side language. Accept it. People can always view you code / steal your images if they want. And to put everyone on a level playing field here, I'd like to point out the easiest way to bypass this pointless javascript interference.

Press the left mouse button just before the right mouse button (almost, but not quite, clicking both at the same time) Internet Explorer (don't know about Netscape) will not deny you access to the popup menu if you do this.

In Agreement

That is stupid. I am only to happy to have people use my code. Hey want a function, no problem. Hey like that table, no problem. I wouldn't even care about server side code if there wasn't a security risk in letting people see it.

I tend to right-click-open-in-new-window a lot so that I can continue looking at the site I'm on, while having the other page load behind. When I can't right click, I'll just leave (usually to not come back... call me over sensitive, but I don't like when sites take away browser functions that I rely on).

Also, how valuable is most code online that it's so important to try to hide it? I've learned a lot from other sites and would be happy to let others see my code and perhaps find something they wanted to learn.

The thing that I have found is that most sites who use the "disable right click" are amateur sites. It's like they said "Hey, I don't want anyone stealing my animation of a dancing hamster...that I stole from someone else.

I have yet to see a professional site that used that scripting. Much less a site that I would even WANT to examine their code.

Well given that I do about 85% of my surfing from a Mac, 10% from Windoze and about 5% from Linux, I wouldn't even know if I had visited such a site as that JavaScript would mean nothing on my system.

The concept of attempting to hide your code is preposterous both on a practical and ethical level. Firstly, right-click disabling the client browser to hide code is as useful as making the font colour white in a word doc to hide the text!

On a philosophical scale, the world wide web would not exist as it does if it were not for open source and open standards. Simple as that! No TPC/IP, no Linux servers, no Apache, no HTML, no JPEG or PNG image formats, need I go on?

People have quickly forgotten that Microsoft, Apple and AOL all ran proprietory, subscription bases, closed internets before the world wide web became the universal standard.

Anyway, as creole says - such silly antics are no doubt the domain of amature script kiddies. No professional web publlisher would willingly insult their audience in that manner.